This active component aligns student learning
with Common Core standards as it integrates science with math, social studies and art. As a result, this lesson works well within the last few months of the school year, after the majority of core standards have been covered in Environ- mental Science. Students will have the ability to include multiple perspectives which will help contribute to starting points for action. In our experience, topics that were first covered in class and then become a part of student’s personal pledges have included: waste, energy, food, water, air pollution, ecosystem dynamics and cycling of matter and elements. Students recognize that there is no “away”
since earth is a closed system. They understand that even though trash gets collected and sub- stances go down drains, it is still here on the planet, just somewhere else. Many actions of our daily lives involve the short-term conveniences associated with disposables. By examining the effects of consumption, students will eliminate more of what goes “away” aiming toward long- term sustainability. Math is utilized in calculating the daily effect
of the student’s change in sustainable action. The daily quantities may, for example, be pounds of carbon dioxide not being added to the atmosphere by taking the bus instead of a personal car, or daily monetary cost saved by using a reusable water bottle. The students will further extrapolate the monthly and yearly effects. As economics is often cited as reason for not forging ahead in sustainable practices, hav- ing quantifiable data substantiating the long-term effects will be undeniable motivators toward change. Especially when the data instead shows cost savings as a result. In social studies classes students come to understand the
implications of collective actions. The sustainable pledge may impact jobs, health, policy or social justice. Students will identify and weigh the societal and environmental cost and benefits associated with their sustainability pledge. Stu- dents will evaluate how the society they belong to shapes their behaviors as well as their effects on ecosystems. In visual arts, the students will create a three-dimen-
sional piece displaying their chosen pledge; including the researched science, math and social data. The art piece will be constructed with recycled materials found at school or from the student’s home. This kinesthetic element provides students the individual freedom of art as a tool toward per- sonal expression. When displayed throughout the school, it comes with the added bonus of engaging the larger school community in the knowledge of the pledged sustainable behaviors performed by their peers. In turn, inspiring peers to make sustainable changes of their own. The art pieces could also be part of a traveling display to junior high and grade schools motivating students to adopt sustainable changes even earlier in life. After the pledges and art pieces have been posted, and
students have begun implementing their pledges into action for at least two weeks, each class should evaluate and assess their achieved impacts as a whole, by calculating the total
environmental, economic and societal savings of all student pledges. You may want to celebrate your student’s successes as a community by a day of food and fun including a sus- tainability photo scavenger hunt and/or a homework-free day. It is important to acknowledge and give recognition to their environmental action pledge and their power to make changes. This action can also be repeated at the end of the school year, encouraging the students to continue imple- menting their sustainable change and forming a long-term habit. By completing the Student Pledge of Sustainable Change, students will recognize that they themselves made these positive impacts, which demonstrates that when put together, everyone’s small action can make a marked differ- ence in the world.
Lesson Plan Time: 4 days x 45 minutes (3 days to complete poster + 1
follow-up day 10 days later)
Objectives: Students will • Choose a sustainable action in which to research • Create a personal pledge to change a behavior • Quantify the long and short term effects of changing their personal action
• Incorporate environmental, economic and social fac- tors and explain how the chosen action pledge will be reflected in each
• Increase personal awareness of behavior • Construct a 3-dimensional poster • Improve community awareness
GREEN TEACHER 113 Page 19
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